The present invention relates to voting and to systems and methods for mobilized polling stations.
Voting is fundamental to a democracy. But voters located outside their home regions have difficulty voting. For example, soldiers located overseas rely on either primitive polling places provided by the military or on absentee voting by mail. For another example, voters displaced by disasters typically rely on absentee voting by mail.
Mail voting lacks the convenience, security, speed, and error-resistance of in-person or machine-assisted voting. Many mail ballots do not arrive on time, many never arrive at the voter's actual location, and many are spoiled due to uncaught voter errors such as mismarking or overvoting (selecting too many candidates). Voters who were recently displaced, such as by a disaster or a military redeployment, are often not in a position to receive their mail and thus cannot vote.
Thus there is a need for improved polling facilities that can be timely deployed, are error-resistant, and can be used even in remote locations. The improved polling facilities can be used to improve administration of elections so that integrity of the results is assured including that voters' choices are kept secret, eligible voters are allowed to vote for the correct contests, and all votes are timely and accurately counted.